Poland’s Crane Rental is adding three new Demag® CC 3800-1 lattice boom crawler cranes, two Demag AC 220-5 all-terrain cranes, and a Demag AC 300-6 all-terrain crane. This large order will help Crane Rental continue to provide outstanding service and support to its customers. The new cranes are scheduled to be built and delivered over the next several months.
Crane Rental’s three 650 metric ton capacity Demag CC 3800-1 crawler cranes are easy to transport and, once at the jobsite, quickly rigged. These new units use the latest crane technology and innovative solutions, as well as high safety standards to keep the operator productive and protected.
%%1017-Terex%%
The two 5-axle Demag AC 220-5 all-terrain cranes and 6-axle AC 300-6 crane are the most compact models in their respective classes. The AC 220-5 crane has an outstanding reach with a main boom length of 78 meters and a maximum system length of 99 meters. The larger 300-metric-ton capacity class AC 300-6 model has a maximum main boom length of 80 meters and system length of 118 meters.
Sterling Rope Company Inc. has developed an entirely new approach to rope construction using mixed materials. With a polyester sheath and nylon core, the WorkPro offers a balanced elongation in the core and sheath, so they share the load evenly. This makes the WorkPro series stronger than other ropes of similar diameters while retaining a small but important amount of elongation.
These kernmantle ropes are dual certified to EN 1891 Type A and NFPA 1983 (Technical for 3/8” and 7/16”, General for 1/2”) standards. They also meet ANSI Z133 standards.
“I’ve used the 7/16” WorkPro extensively this past year, and I’m happy to see Sterling is coming out with a 1/2” diameter that has the same performance and handling characteristics,” said Ed Carpenter, owner and lead instructor for North American Training Solutions. “As an arborist, the larger diameter is easier on my hands when I climb and is more compatible with the gear I use.”
%%1017-SR%%
The WorkPro series of static ropes is available in 3/8”, 7/16”, and 1/2” diameters. Each model comes in multiple colors and lengths.
Sterling Rope Company Inc. is a leading manufacturer of life-safety rope, cord, and hardware. Made in the U.S., Sterling has worked hard to develop the best product for use in climbing, rope rescue, arbor, fire, industrial safety, work access, and OEM markets.
Working at height requires movement. Workers need to connect and reconnect their snap hooks dozens — or even several dozens of times — a day. The new 3M™ DBI-SALA® Comfort Grip Connector from 3M™ Fall Protection improves connecting and disconnecting while providing flexibility to anchor efficiently and comfortably in multiple orientations.
“The search for a connector that can be tied off in multiple directions is over,” said Nate Safe, product development specialist at 3M Personal Safety Division. “Many of the hooks on the market can be a nuisance to open where the operator’s hand is placed right in the opening creating a pain point. The Comfort Grip Connector opens and closes easily and comes with a hand guard so knuckles are protected while making a connection.”
%%1017-3M%%
Designed and certified to arrest a fall when loaded in multiple orientations, the Comfort Grip Connector helps provide a 5,000-pound tensile strength as well as up to 3,600 pounds in transverse and gate strengths. When connected to a vertical or transverse application, such as a pipe, the hand-guard pin shears in the event of a fall to allow the connector to align with the direction of the fall and remain securely anchored.
The 3M DBI-Sala Comfort Grip Connector is available on some of 3M Fall Protection’s most popular products, including:
Miki Pulley’s CS Electromagnetic actuated clutches are durable, versatile and have excellent torque transmission features.
CS Clutches provide an efficient connection between a motor and a load providing low inertia, minimal drag, and quiet operation. They function using the magnetic force generated by the energized coil providing engagement of input and output members of the clutch.
%%1017-MP%%
Available with three different armatures, Miki Pulley CS Clutches consist of a clutch stator, rotor, and armature assembly. They feature an integrated bearing design making mounting fast and easy while ensuring application concentricity and excellent system runout. CS Clutches operate well in temperatures from 14°F to 104° F (-10°C to 40°C).
Available in bores ranging from 10 mm to 15 mm, with brake torques ranging from 3.687 ft. lbs. to 236.02 ft. lbs. (5 Nm to 320 Nm). The CS Clutch uses corrosion resistant materials and is RoHS compliant like all other Miki products.
“Miki Pulley’s CS Clutches stand apart from competitor’s models, in that they incorporate specialized composites and alloys promoting durability and longer operational life,” said Jon Davidson, Miki Pulley sales specialist. “Miki Pulley’s friction-type design operates smoothly and quietly, making them an ideal choice for digital printing systems, and similar equipment requiring near noiseless operation.”
Ty-Met™ stainless steel retained-tension ball-lock cable ties, new from Thomas & Betts® (T&B®), a member of the ABB Group, feature specially formed spring crimps that help maintain consistent tension on the tie after installation.
Consistent tension enables the cable tie to remain in position, even under high-vibration conditions.
%%1017-TyMet%%
“Ty-Met retained-tension cable ties won’t slide down the bundle of cables after installation,” said Ralph Donati, product marketing director, Installation Products, at ABB Electrification Products. “The spring crimp was engineered to provide positive clamping in high-vibration applications, such as manufacturing, heavy equipment operation, oil and gas processing, renewable energy generation, and shipbuilding.”
The formed channel provides a path for trace wire that protects against crushing and short circuits. Other features include the ball-lock fastening mechanism that is easily assembled and adjusted for tension. Ty-Met stainless steel retained-tension ball-lock cable ties are available in Type 304 stainless steel and marine-grade Type 316 stainless steel.
Ty-Met stainless steel retained-tension ball-lock cable ties can be installed with T&B DAS-250 application tools.
Antaira Technologies, a global leading developer and manufacturer of industrial networking devices and communication solutions for harsh environment applications, recently announced the expansion of its industrial networking infrastructure family with the introduction of the LNP-2804GN-SFP-T.
Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) technology has become popular, and there are many devices that are PoE ready: PoE cameras, VoIP phones, wireless radios, and access controllers. These technologies have been widely adopted in industrial markets that include automation manufacturing, security surveillance, power/utility, water wastewater treatment plants, oil/gas/mining, and transportation industries. The LNP-2804GN-SFP-T works well in wide temperature environments that require rugged Power Source Equipment (PSE) networking equipment with high-density Ethernet port connectivity, long distance data transmission, and reliability.
%%1017-Antaira%%
Antaira’s LNP-2804GN-SFP-T is the latest rackmount industrial Gigabit PoE+ managed Ethernet switch that offers 24 full Gigabit Ethernet ports with a PSE maximum of 30W per port and four combo ports featuring four SFP fiber slots for long distance connectivity or four 10/100/1000 twisted pair ports. This product series has an IP30 rated metal casing design that can be mounted in a 19” rack. The device provides a dual redundant power input range of 46 to 57 VDC with an overload current and reverse polarity prevention, as well as high EFT surge and ESD protection.
Additionally, there is a built-in relay warning function to alert maintainers when power failures occur on one of the two power sources. Each unit is built to withstand industrial networking hazards such as shock, drop, vibration, electromagnetic interference (EMI), and temperature extremes (-40°C to approximately 75°C). The unit is 438 mm (W) x 259.2 mm (D) x 43.6 mm (H) and weighs 8.37 pounds.
Senvion, a leading global manufacturer of wind turbines, has successfully completed the installation of the first 3.6M140 EBC (Eco Blade Control) turbine prototype at the Windtestfeld Nord near Husum, in Schleswig-Holstein, for 4testwind GmbH. The Senvion 3.6M140 EBC is one of Senvion’s biggest onshore turbines designed for moderate and strong wind speeds.
The new turbine is equipped with the innovative load-reducing pitch control system Eco Blade Control (EBC) technology, which enables optimized load management even in challenging wind conditions. The 3.6M140 EBC also features a newly designed steel tower and a larger rotor diameter of 140 meters which generates high yields even at lower wind speeds.
The rotor blades are equipped with the new Rodpack technology, which ensures a lighter blade design. At a hub height of 110 meters, the turbine can power up to 3,400 households per year and has an extended lifetime of 25 years.
%%1017-Sevion-1%%
The Windtestfeld Nord, near Husum, is just three kilometers away from the North Sea. This location offers the ideal wind conditions for the testing and the certification of the turbine.
“Senvion is committed to reducing the levelized cost of energy,” said Jürgen Geissinger, CEO at Senvion. “With this new turbine, we have combined core product developments to create a machine that is targeted toward optimal energy efficiency. The combination of the 140-meter rotor diameter and the upgrade to 3.6 MW allows additional output at the same site. Even with the larger 68.5-meter rotor blades, the 3.6M140 EBC can be installed in the same amount of time as a smaller turbine, ensuring an effective solution for our customers.”
The wind-farm owner, 4testwind GmbH, is a co-development from the iTerra GmbH & Co. KG and Betriebs und Beteiligungsgesellschaft Senvion mbH.
“Throughout this very demanding project, we have always been able to remain on track and keep focused together with our manufacturing partner, Senvion,” said Dr. Peter Brodersen, managing director at iTerra Wind GmbH & Co. KG. “Even the change to a newer type of plant was possible and despite all the adversities we were able to commission the prototype in time before the HUSUM Wind 2017. I would like to thank Senvion and all the others who have fought for the project. This determination and positive cooperation were the guarantors of success.”
Senvion presented the 3.6M140 EBC turbine at Hamburg WindEnergy in September 2016. Serial production for the turbine already has begun with further installations planned for this year.
GE Renewable Energy recently unveiled its new 4.8-158 onshore wind turbine, GE’s largest high efficiency turbine to date. Featuring the largest rotor in the segment and innovative blade design, the 4.8-158 offers a significant improvement in Annual Energy Production (AEP), reducing the cost of energy for customers with low to medium wind-speed sites.
“The 4.8-158 design is an important next step in turbine technology and efficiency, and we’re excited to introduce this turbine at this moment in time,” said Pete McCabe, president and CEO of GE’s Onshore Wind Business. “It is well suited for low to medium wind-speed regions worldwide — examples include Germany, Turkey, and Australia — as well as for mechanisms like auctions, as countries around the world are putting an increased emphasis on lowering the cost of energy.”
The new 4.8 MW wind turbine, GE’s first onshore entry in the 4MW space, is equipped with a 158-meter rotor and a range of tip heights up to 240 meters. The combination of a larger rotor and tall towers enables the turbine to take advantage of higher wind speeds and produce more energy.
GE’s latest turbine features high-tech blades, improved loads and controls, and taller, more cost-effective towers. These new innovative features have been developed thanks to close partnerships with LM Wind Power, Blade Dynamics, and GE’s Global Research Center.
%%1017-GE%%
The 77-meter-long carbon blades leverage the strong track record and material innovations of LM Wind Power and are their longest onshore blades to date. These carbon blades will enable flexibility, allowing GE to offer its customers a high efficiency product while continuing to drive down LCOE. The blades also feature one of the industry’s smallest bolt circle diameters, keeping manufacturing and logistical costs to a minimum.
“This turbine is a great example of what we can achieve through the GE Store, combining technology and development with innovative design and expertise from the Global Research Center, LM Wind Power, and Blade Dynamics,” McCabe said. “We collected input from more than 30 customers around the world to ensure we are meeting their specific turbine needs with this product as they work to provide lower-cost renewable energy.”
The 4.8-158 leverages the best of GE’s 2MW and 3MW platforms, including the proven DFIG — doubly-fed induction generator — and a robust drivetrain architecture. The turbine meets a lower standard of noise emission levels, achieving a 104-dB level during normal operations. The newly designed machine head reduces the needs for a larger crane while facilitating up-tower repairs and troubleshooting with its up-tower electrical system.
GE’s most powerful onshore turbine is built to leverage the intelligence gathered from across the company’s 30,000-plus fleet of wind turbines. Data analyzed from this large installed base powers the 4.8-158 with GE’s next generation control system. By using GE’s Predix core applications including asset performance management (APM), cybersecurity, and business optimization (BO) solutions, its customers realize business outcomes, including lifecycle extension of the customers’ windfarms and improvement of farm economics.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has appointed Alan Feeley as its new chief cyber security officer. In addition to his current responsibilities as chief information officer, he will expand and manage the company’s operational framework for cyber security and will consolidate all security developments in the context of the digital transformation of SGRE after the merger of Gamesa and Siemens Wind Power. In this role, Feeley will work closely with the technology and product security departments, corporate security, and HR.
Cyber security vulnerabilities and threats present tangible risks and challenges to companies and to the operations they support for their customers. The complexity of this topic requires coordination and orchestration across many parts of large companies, including IT, product design, security, and data protection, to name a few.
%%1017-Siemens-2%%
Siemens Gamesa helps its customers to take advantage of technology advancements while simultaneously minimizing exposure to risk. An optimal security solution can only be implemented if it is continuously adapted to new threats. With the new position, Siemens Gamesa has implemented cyber security in its top management to be prepared for future challenges and to address any potential security issues both internally as well as for its customers.
Products made by The Timken Company have powered many of the world’s largest wind turbines, traveled to Mars with the Curiosity rover, and supported drilling of the world’s longest rail tunnel.
But when all is said and done, it’s not about what Timken makes; it’s about the know-how that goes into making it.
“We make it about our knowledge and not just about our bearings,” said Richard Brooks, manager — energy markets with Timken. “We are an engineering company, and you see our know-how and innovation in our products.”
Brooks is responsible for Timken’s energy businesses including bearings and related products for wind-turbine maintenance and reliability.
An interactive display in the Timken product showroom conveys product information at various levels of technicality. (Images courtesy: The Timken Company)
Wind — An Ideal Market
Although Timken and its subsidiaries have a hand in many different industries, it’s in wind that it has found a simpatico business relationship.
“Wind is an ideal market for us essentially because it matches the types of markets that have high-demand, challenging applications,” Brooks said. “The forces involved in wind are pretty spectacular. They need high reliability because these things are operating by themselves, hundreds of feet in the air, and repairs are expensive. Our goal in wind is continuing to grow and maintain our position as a major supplier for new turbines, as well as their key system sub suppliers like gearbox suppliers.”
Over the past eight years, Timken has acquired about a dozen businesses that deal with well-known brands that include related products and services, according to Brooks.
“About half of these have some play in wind energy,” he said.
Timken has two major divisions: mobile industries and process industries. About 25 percent of process industries are for OEM-based new equipment. For example, equipment sold to a turbine builder or to a brand new steel mill or cement plant.
The remainder of that is the aftermarket where distribution of services comes into play, Brooks said.
End markets Timken works with include general industry, automotive, rail, energy, defense, agriculture, metals, mining, civil aerospace, construction, and paper/aggregate.
Energy makes up about 9 percent of those total markets.
“About half of that energy space is wind,” Brooks said. “It’s the largest of the energy segments and the most rapidly growing.”
A Global Footprint
All of those industries give Timken a global footprint among 28 countries, 57 sales offices, and 75 plants and service centers, but it still remains a major North American-based bearing company.
Roughly 60 percent of Timken’s business is in North America.
The Timken Company, a global industrial technology leader, applies its deep knowledge of materials, friction management, and power transmission to improve the reliability and efficiency of industrial machinery and equipment all around the world.
So it’s easy to see just how Timken’s products and services have stretched around the world, according to Brooks.
“We’ve grown globally, over the last two decades,” he said. “We really expanded throughout the world, growing in Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
The core of Timken’s business has always been engineered bearings, according to Brooks.
But Timken has been expanding into mechanical power transmissions and industrial services surrounding that drive train.
“We’re looking to grow what we do, still focusing on the challenging part of the drivetrain but adding on couplings or lubrication systems or other services,” Brooks said.
Relationship With The Wind Owners
When it comes to the wind industry, Timken maintains a constant relationship with the actual wind owners, he said.
“In addition to working a lot with turbine builders and gearbox builders, we have very close relationships with turbine owners,” Brooks said. “All those really big end users who own thousands of these turbines have learned a lot in the last 15 years. It’s still a new industry in many ways, and, therefore, there are a lot of problems with some of the existing turbines where we can bring our technology to bear. We’ve had a very collaborative effort with a lot of these end users to take the technology and the higher end products that we have, figure out where they’re having problems, and solve those problems.”
The atrium of Timken’s new building features a distinctive staircase.
New Innovations
That technology is responsible for several new innovations that Timken plans to unveil this year.
“We have a new grease for main bearings that’s launching this fall,” Brooks said. “We’ve been a little bit cautious in bringing on a grease in wind like we have in many other industries simply because we wanted to make sure it met the needs of the market.”
Timken also expects to launch a new line of generator bearings designed to address some common failures in generator bearings from electrical arcing, according to Brooks.
“There’s a common phenomenon where, instead of the electric current going where it’s supposed to, it ends up going through the bearings and damaging them,” he said. “So we have a new line of generator bearings that are electrically isolated.”
Brooks said in the last year Timken released a new main bearing design — called a TDI — that is designed to solve a lot of problems in many common turbine models.
The design is already being used in specific turbines, and Timken is looking to broaden that offering to even more assets, he said.
From Kilowatts to Megawatts
An example of these turbine problems Timken’s new design should correct stems from when the industry began to grow from kilowatts to megawatts.
“Essentially, what they did is they took the existing designs that worked pretty well at 150 feet and 500 kW and scaled them up to 300 feet in the air at 2 MW,” Brooks said. “The forces involved caused a lot of application problems that were not foreseen.”
A typical design for a 1- to 2-MW turbine uses a spherical roller bearing in its main shaft for the main rotor bearing, which is the bearing that sits right behind the blade and supports both the weight of the blade as well as the thrust from the wind, according to Brooks. That spherical roller bearing can handle the weight, but dealing with the wind thrust proved difficult.
“So working with those end users, we learned that they’ve seen poor performance,” he said. “The turbines were failing long before they were expected to. They wanted them to last 25 years, and they’re having to replace them at eight years. And the real problem is that, although that bearing may be a $20,000 bearing, you have to bring in a quarter-million dollar crane to replace that $20,000 bearing. So it’s pretty much a disaster on their operating budget.”
Bearing Upgrade
To help solve that problem, Brooks said Timken has come up with two different upgraded offerings for that spherical roller bearing.
One of those options is an upgraded spherical roller bearing equipped with a diamond-like carbon coating that can reduce specific problems and extend the life of the asset, he said.
“The other would be this TDI that I mentioned where we’re basically completely redesigning it and replacing the spherical roller bearing with a tapered roller bearing,” Brooks said.
Timken is constantly striving to stay at the forefront of technology in order to maintain operational excellence for industries that are used to working in extreme harsh environments.
“The Mars rover is a great example where it’s a pretty extreme application. And talk about reliability — it’s got to operate for years in a place where no human will ever see it again. That’s about as extreme as you can get from the reliability side of things,” Brooks said. “Along similar lines are offshore wind turbines. We are involved with most of the wind turbines in the world to one extent or another. So wind is a great example of how we showcase what we do.”
Materials Expertise
Timken has been able to take its decades-long history with dealing with materials and combine it with innovation and apply it to the wind industry.
“One of the areas where we’re leading the industry, specific to
gearboxes, would be our history with steel and material science,” Brooks said. “The way we’ve innovated in the gearbox side of things is taking that materials knowledge and materials science and applying it to the problems that the industry has been seeing in gearboxes and bringing in better-made bearings with better materials to combat a lot of the existing problems in the field. We’re one of the leaders in working with the gearbox builders as well as the turbine builders to apply these better technologies and higher quality materials to gearboxes to design out the problems that they’re having.”
But that history of knowledge is only part of the equation. Another is Timken’s hands-on collaboration with its end users, according to Brooks.
“We’ve got technicians in their turbines every day, trying to figure out what’s wrong, and then working with their engineering teams to say, ‘OK, you’ve got problems here; let’s fix it,’” he said. “Let’s just not keep replacing that bad bearing; let’s replace it with a better bearing that’s not going to fail next time. And that collaborative process differentiates us as well.”
Even with all the growth and advancement Timken has experienced, Brooks said the company still prides itself as a family environment.
“Our story began with Henry Timken back in the 1890s,” he said. “And even though we’re a publicly traded company, we have fifth-generation members of the Timken family still involved with the company. It’s kind of interesting in that you get the best of both worlds being a part of a large publicly traded company but still having that family sort of feel to it.”
Bearing Upgrade
